I am new to blogging, with just passing over 50 followers on WordPress and 75 on Facebook so far so I was really surprised but also honoured to be one of the 11 bloggers recently nominated the Liebster Award by Sofia whose blog is A no one’s diary. Sofia likes writing about life, random stuff and make up and you can click on her link here https://anoonesdiary.wordpress.com/ to find out out more about her and her lovely blog.

The Liebster Award gives bloggers the opportunity to grow their followership by telling other bloggers a bit more about themselves and engaging with fellow bloggers through nominating them further. It helps promote each others’ blogs. So thank you Sofia for the opportunity and I’d like to pay it forward too!

The rules are:

The nominated blogger must acknowledge who has nominated them and also share their links

Share 11 facts about themselves

Answer the 11 questions that they have been asked

Nominate 11 more bloggers whose blog they recommend

Ask 11 questions that they would like those bloggers to answer

Let the bloggers they’ve nominated know that they’ve been nominated.

So here it goes!

11 Facts about me:

I started Flamenco dance classes (and took them for about 5 years) after I was inspired by watching live Flamenco dancing in Barcelona while travelling there with friends as a graduate student.

I am a huge Kate Bush fan. My lifetime dream to one day see her perform live became a reality 3 years ago!

When we bought an Espresso coffee machine with my husband about a year ago we started a tradition without even discussing it which we continue to this day. Everytime we open a packet of espresso coffee capsules we stack them next to the coffee machine in different formations. Every time one of us uses a capsule or adds more capsules to the kitchen counter we change the shape of the formation. I don’t know if what I’m trying to explain makes any sense so here are some photos to show you better some examples of our formations.

4. I was a ferocious nail biter from a young age until I turned 22. Just before going to graduate school I woke up one day and thought to myself “Kiki, you’re too old to be biting your nails. Grow up and grow your nails already”. After that I grew my nails really long and have managed to quit my bad habit for good. I now love having well manicured nails and painting them different colours.

5. I love travelling and made it my goal a few years ago to travel to new destinations every year and visit as many different countries as possible. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to do this lately but so far I have visited 30 different countries (if I include my homeland Cyprus) in my 42 years of living on earth :

Greece

UK

France

Belgium

Luxemburg

Switzerlan (only passing through though)

Poland

Germany

Italy

Spain

Malta

Ireland

Austria

Iceland

Sweden

Norway

Finland

Denmark

The Netherlands

Jordan

Lebanon

UAE

USA

Egyp

Israel

Hungary

Czech Republic

Latvia

Australia (I don’t know this one escaped me. A friend who read the blog just notified me to add it)

Hopefully I will get to visit another 30 in my lifetime.

6. I once won a karaoke contest in a bar in Patra (Greece) while on a weekend get away with friends. I won singing the song “Black Velvet” by Alanah Myles. It was the highlight of my singing career.

7. My husband and I became Wombassadors ever since we came back from Sydney (Australia) after we spent 6 weeks there in 2013. Wombats are animals native only to Australia, less known than koalas but equally cute. Australian organisations that care for them depend on charity to pay for their needs and we are happy to give a donation every year and buy promotional materials as gifts from them. We also hope to hug a few wombats one day. They’re adorable.

8. I love attending live concerts. Last night I had the opportunity to watch Robbie Williams in Manchester. It was so much fun!

9. I played the cello in highschool. Even though I was pretty much useless I really enjoyed being in the symphonic orchestra.

10. In case you haven’t realised already I love make-up.

11. I am a big foodie so I have been struggling with my weight for most of my life. Dieting is a real challenge for me. So in order to look nice for my wedding (which was in October 2016) I purposely ordered my wedding dress a size smaller. Setting that goal was the only way to lose weight but I still had to join a gym and exercise 2 hours a day, every day in the month leading up to the wedding to fit in it. Thankfully the hard work paid off and the dress did not rip when I wore it on the big day.

Now, on to Part 2. The questions assigned to me were:

What’s your guilty pleasure?

There’s so many to choose from. From chocolate, coffee, cakes … but the one that my husband finds worrying is my fascination with murder mysteries whether they are real life or fiction (reading about them or watching series and documentaries). He thinks I’m disturbed.

2. Describe your first kiss.

I am over 40 so it was a very long time ago but I’m sure it was awkward and I probably didn’t breathe during my first kiss as I wouldn’t know what to do.

3. What do you want to be when you grow up?

I love this question! When I was a child I wanted to be a fashion designer. Then I grew up, studied Psychology and HRM and followed a 20 year career in Human Resource Management. Growing up even further my dream I guess would be to become an exceptional and renowned make-up artist. But it’s probably only going to stay just a dream. But dreaming never hurt anyway so I’ll keep on dreaming.

4. Most cringey situation.

I think I’ve had quite a few of those that I’d rather forget or have a selective memory of!

5. Tell us a secret!

When I was doing my Master’s degree as a graduate student I wanted to dye my hair bright red (the Coca-Cola can colour kind) but was too scared I wouldn’t be taken seriously. I resorted to going for 1 blue strand instead. I thought it would look cool against my dyed blue-black hair. It was a botched attempt at the dormitory. I tried to bleach a strand of my (already dyed) blue black hair and then dying it blue on top. I ended up looking ridiculous with a patch in the middle of my head looking orange/purple! After my perplexed university tutor asked me what I’d done to my hair I dyed it back to black.

6. What is the worst purchase you’ve ever made?

I’ve made a few bad purchases in my life, from buying beautiful, very expensive shoes that turned out to be uncomfortable and unwearable to make up products that turned out to be rubbish. A recent bad one that comes to mind was a L’Oreal hair spray product that’s meant to cover grey roots. It just makes a mess! I’d rather dye my roots every fortnight than use that product again.

Sorry L’Oreal, I do like you as a brand in general but I wasn’t worth THAT product!

7. What’s the most useless talent you have?

I can’t think of any. I’d like to think that any talents I may have are useful in one way or another.

8. What trends do you hate?

Throughout the decades I’ve hated trends like shoulder pads and straight fringes on afro hair but the latest trend I can’t get over is “scouser eyebrows”.

9. Have you ever messed up, but no one ever found out it was you?

Hmm. I’m pretty sure I always fessed up to things I messed up. I’m not one to deny a mistake I’ve made. I sometimes even tend to apologise for things I didn’t do wrong rather than try to argue that I haven’t. So that’s something I need to work on.

10. What’s the worst habit you have?

Picking my spots. I don’t have the patience to let them go away naturally. I know it makes things worse but I can’t control myself. I know it’s a disgusting habit but you asked, sorry!

11. What’s your dream travel?

Going to the Seychelles. Ever since I saw a documentary from the 70s on the Seychelles islands with their dreamy beaches I’ve always wanted to go there one day for a romantic holiday. At some point I decided that that’s where I would go for my honeymoon if I ever got married. When I got engaged I told my (now) husband that this was my dream honeymoon destination but he wants to do a grand tour of Australia instead as he’s not interested in sitting by a beach for 2 weeks. To comprise, we’re planning (a very belated) honeymoon comprising of 2 or 3 days in Bali AND go on an adventure around Australia.

I’ve been meaning to write on my blog for a couple of weeks now about the colour wheel and the different styles of eye makeup I’ve been shown in class but I had my lovely day out in London last week which I was excited to write about and then there was last Monday evening… Where out of the blue tragedy struck Manchester. The wonderful city I’ve been living in for the last 3 years. A city with history, beautiful architecture, industrial significance, great music scene. An inspiring city which re-emerged from the IRA bombings and rebuilt itself beautifully to combine the old with the modern. A city of wonderful, compassionate people.

The sensesless act of bombing innocent people, mostly children and teenagers, has left everyone in shock​. I could not even think about writing about make up and colours when so many families are suffering.

But Mancunians are strong and caring people. They don’t live in fear. They took to the streets to show solidarity and opposition to terrorism by flooding central Manchester and showing their love for the great city of Manchester and its people. Buildings, shop windows, walls covered with signs of love for Manchester.

It is inspiring to see that although people are hurting they are not defeated. I too will resume my usual blogging about makeup soon.

Welcome to my blog

Makeup lovers and addicts of the world, I want to reach out to you and share with you my thoughts and experiences from my new journey. A creative journey which started with the decision to take up a professional makeup artist class in April 2017.